A POEM
Posted on July 4, 2020
If: the 2020 version
by Brian Clopper
(with apologies to good old Rudyard Kipling and to my eighth-grade language arts teacher who made me memorize the original)
If you can wear a mask when all about
Are refusing to and shaming it on you.
If you can stay at home and not be tired
Of missing out on bars and group BBQ.
If you can always maintain six feet
Between non-immediate family and you.
If you can cavort with common sense
And wash hands to the count of twenty-two.
If you can think of others especially your elders
And bid partying and large gatherings ado.
If you can befriend scientific caution
And cast out political hullabaloo.
If you can know that sacrifice is long haul
And not take on the be-done-with-it-now purview.
If you can see the dangers of the virus
And not label it just an overblown flu.
If you can exhibit all this tremendous courage
Then many will be alive my son!